Archive for December, 2007

For over a month, my blog was not being indexed by Google. I recently upgraded to a dedicated server, and apparently something wasn’t toggled correctly, and some websites found my blog to be a 403, permission issues. Although I was being indexed by Yahoo, MSN, ASK and others, google was no longer displaying my blog in any search results.

I’ve never spent money on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) nor do I go to any great efforts other than blogging best practices, to make sure I score well. I’ve been using Google as the main way to find my own blog posts, as it’s the fastest way, the native blog search returns way to many values, and not necessarily sorted by relevance. I wasn’t the only one, as a few readers emailed me and told me they couldn’t find my blog, apparently they use search to find me, rather than bookmark or subscribe.

Thanks to the various folks that have tried to offer some advice, although I ultimately found the solution by logging into Google’s webmaster and doing a site verify (have you done that?). I then contacted my host, and a few days later, it’s now easily found in the search results. Here’s what my web host said:

“Ah!, i found that you have any ip starting from 66.249 blocked, im not sure why this is here, probably to block google when you site was hosted on shared. I dont have any notes on your account that we did this for any issues on your private server, so i`ll go ahead and remove it.”

It’s now fixed. While many social media purists look down on SEO, one only realizes how important something is once it’s gone.

Update: I suggested to Dreamhost that this was an opportunity loss for me and it would be appreciated if they credited me a reasonable amount, they did, thanks, that was the right thing to do.

I’m starting this series of posts tagged On The Move (click to see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. We should congratulate the following folks:

Sheila Scarborough is joining Connie Reece and Mike Chapman at Reece and Company as a social media writer and consultant. Her other passions includes writing about travel and NHRA drag racing.(Twitter handle)

Steven Mandzik formerly of American Intelligence Community is now moving to a different group, one that will allow him to be a community leader, in an entrepreneurial shop at the CIA. He left a comment in my previous post.

Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, or I’ll delete it.

I asked Connie what to do when detractors criticize your company, brand, or products, we also talk about dealing with an overwhelming negative community or forum.

I also recommend setting up a process in advanced that helps to identify what type of detractor you’re dealing with, as some should be responded to quickly, and some should never be responded to (ongoing trolls). Develop a plan on what to do, as you’re going to have to deal with different personalities throughout your community program.

For the web professional, there are various activities that occur on a consistent basis, I’ve boiled them down to three succint types of activities. Working as a lowly production UI designer to managing a global website, I’ve had to do all.

The Three Web Activities: Task, Project, and Business Programs

The Task

What: A web task is a short term undertaking that could involve any type of activity that supports a website.

Examples: These could be content changes, database checks, stylesheet changes, or reporting and monitoring.

Who: Typically assigned to the content, development, web analysts, production, or engineering team, these are the core activities that keep the website running efficiently.

The Project

What: A specific-duration activity, this project involves the completion of a goal, and success is measured upon completion and timeliness to complete.

Examples: Several projects may be going on during any given time such as a redesign project, code upgrade, cms install, or language translation.

Who: Often assigned to a web manager, business analyst, or dedicated project manager, this person may call upon resources from various teams in the company from the web team, marketing, and often IT.

The Business Program

What: These ongoing business programs (not to be confused a web application ‘program’) are the heart of a web managers purpose, their job is to manage these ongoing programs with a specific goal in mind: increase revenue or decrease costs. These web programs are designed to fulfill objectives of a web strategy.

Examples: the Intranet program, the Extranet program, the International website program, the Community Program, the Blogging Program, or the corporate website program.

Who: This duty is typically relegated to the Web Strategist (titles include web manager, web director, vp of web marketing). They will employ a number of ongoing resources to properly allocate for content, code, production, management, and ongoing maintainence.

I’m both passionate about communities (having created the community advocate group in Facebook, as well as held the community manager role at HDS) and am now doing research on this topic. I’m on a quest to find an accurate, reliable, and timeless definition of the term “online community”.

I vetted this definition with my Twitter network, received nearly 50 responses this morning. I’ve boiled down a definition to the following:

An online community is: Where a group of people with similar goals or interests connect and exchange information using web tools.

Your feedback wanted (as always) how do you define community? Please note this needs to be succint, yet comprehensive and stand the test of time.

Update:
I embedded all the responses I received on twitter about the community definition. I think it’s appropriate to note that I’m working with the community to define the term.

I just saw Shel defined this from his blog as “Communities are bodies of people loosely joined together by a common interest”. That’s the most succint one so far, I’ll add to it to suit the requirement of an ‘online community’: “Communities are bodies of people loosely joined together by a common interest that exchange information using web tools”.

Update 2: In the comments below, Jake suggests that time and relationships are a factor, I don’t think they are. People don’t have to have relationships to be part of a community (although he suggests that skirts into a community of practice arena) and I think someone can be part of a community, time not being a factor.

As a result, I’m getting fond of this second definition:

“Online communities are bodies of people joined together by a common interest”.

Working this definition out in public has proven fruitful, even some of my colleagues are chiming in.

The day after. I’ve given this more thought, and in my quest to “boil down” the essence of the term, it’s clear to me that folks do NOT agree on the following being attributes of every community:

Relationships: From deep to none
Time (long time to develop vs short time)
Interaction: from exchanging ideas to just observing.
Agreement of all ideas

The two attributes that everyone seems to agree are always part of a community are the follwoing

A group of people
Commonalities, affinities

So the second definition listed above, really has the potential for staying power.

Update Jan 31st: Jake brings up more points, that an online community is too broad, there’s got to be a more definitive attribute to describe a ‘bunch of people standing around’ vs a ‘community. Could it be interaction, duration, or the building of relationships?

I’m used to being online 12+ hours a day, just to keep up with the news in the rapid fire tech industry.

This week is so quiet, that even press were asking me to see if I had any stories or anything interesting to share, usually they have a story in mind they are on rapid deadline to complete.

Many companies launched their features and products in Mid Dec or earlier as business folks take up to two weeks off.

This really reinforces why I love the tech industry, as this ‘ketchup week‘, is a good reminder what it’s like in many other industries.

I was telling my colleague Josh Bernoff today that if I talk about my employer I get called a ‘shill’, if I don’t talk about my employer, I’m “witholding information” from behind the ‘paywall’. Ya’ can’t please everyone.